Jefferson Bethke – Are Tattoos Sinful

[Jefferson Bethke] Source: LYBIO.net
Now to be honest, I told myself I would never make a video on this topic just because I know how much flack it brings, and how many people get upset and start debating and dialoguing I mean for Pete sake all you have have to do is just read the YouTube comments and some of my videos.

But I have a feeling or I hope that people are gracious enough where we can dialog about this, discuss this and ultimately go to the scriptures. And see what god says about this issue and just chat about it, because I think it’s one that’s the most misunderstood in today’s society, and it’s the issue of tattoos, okay.

Now, obviously you know what team I am on, you know, I got some ink, but I prayerfully studied and pursued truth in that matter, before I got these, these weren’t whimsical, these weren’t just on a whim I did them on purpose and with intentionality.

Now tattoos where do I start. So a lot of times people will message on my videos, the classic disagreement with tattoos is in Leviticus. Now, I’ll just read that virtue quick and we’ll chat about it. So this is the only verse that pretty much people can go to in the Old Testament talks about tattoos, and it says this. It says out of context. It says in verse Leviticus 19:28, you shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves for I am the Lord.

Now you read that out of context like oh! Brutal missed it, right. Missed it, but in context which is so important when you are reading the scriptures, it’s a little different. It’s a little different, because in the entire chapter god in this passage is giving a bunch of statutes and kind of ways and how he lined up the Israelites to live at that point of time. And let’s read some more, because a lot of people will quote this verse to me and if the people quote this to me, then I would hope they also live up to the rest because that if they are going to live up to that, then why not the other ones in the passage as well, right.

And so just a few verses above it, it says you shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. And when you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; and it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year you can eat. And so a few things there as, if you are the person quoting to me that I can’t get tattoos, then you hopefully also are the person not eating any fruit or vegetable that has not been cultivated for at least three years. And on top of that, you don’t need any meat, because all meat has some form of either dried blood or if it’s medium-rare totally normal blood in the meat.

And so just from a contextual standpoint, we have to say okay, well obviously we still do those things, but why because in this passage, when you push into the scriptures and you kind of just study the context of this history in this time. You see it was meant for a time and a place. I mean think about it other passages, obviously we do those things and we cultivate and we eat fruit earlier. And we eat medium-rare steak, but god gave that to the Israelites as a wisdom issue they don’t have pesticides, they don’t have refrigerators. And so he is looking at them and he’s saying, he’s saying I am looking out for your joy and your vitality and this is how I want things to operate just so that you live right.

[Jefferson Bethke] Source: LYBIO.net
And historically if you look at their track record, they were one of the healthiest nations around because of that, because god had given them a few wisdom nuggets per se of how he made the world to line up. And then again, when you take that in context and look at the tattoo verse, you also realize it can mark up your body. So anyone has earrings, I always see that’s funny when they’re critiquing me about tattoos, same thing, same verse.

But on top of that when you push a little deeper, the reason they say it as because so as you shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves. Now the biggest thing there is when you study pagan worship from this time, pagan idolatry and there was a source of pagan idolatry that said they would cut themselves and tattoo themselves literally as worship to dead people. They would honor and worship dead people as gods by cutting themselves and bleeding out and tattooing themselves.

Now, god said that because he didn’t want them to be aligned with that culture and he didn’t want them to give off the wrong signal, right, because if that was what tattoos were known as. So when they got one people would think they were worshipping pagan gods. But in our culture, when you see someone with a tattoo, you don’t instantly think they worship dead people, right. So like Sixth Sense and Bruce Willis that would be really awkward and weird.

Some people might do it. But tattoos on a whole you don’t look at like and say that’s why and so it’s a wisdom issue, it’s not a sin issue, it’s a wisdom issue. And what I mean by that is, if I have, you know, kids hopefully lord willing will wait down the line. And if it’s a daughter, no tattoos just joking. But if the daughter or the son want to get tattoos, I am going to ask them why, I am going to ask them what of, and if they just say because it looks cool, because I want to be the next like young Jeezy, probably not because that’s when they are 60 years old, those tats weren’t going to be looking that good.

But my tattoos just for example, this one says forgiven and this one says loved in the original Greek. And so when I am 85 years old, I am still going to want to know that I am forgiven and still going to want to know that I am loved. And so I just want to say man, if we’re going to really address this issue, can we just address it with right from permanent, right, contextualization reading it correctly and lot of people say, well, yeah that’s not the only verse, and first Corinthians says that our body is a temple of the holy sprit.

And so we don’t want to mark it up, now yes in a man but that verse, when you look at it, again and it’s context is specifically talking about sexual immorality, god says when you join yourself to another person in sexual immorality because where it temples internally of the holy spirit, you’re defaming and kind of like putting graffiti all over that temple and not respecting it or honoring it. So it’s not even taking about external, it’s talking about how sexual sin is one of the most unique sins because it’s internal and more spiritual, and then it’s talking about how that issue is internal in general. And so lastly I also just say, you know we also can even have a little sense of humor when you look in revelation 19, it says that Jesus will comeback and on his thigh, says on his thigh (word for word) on his thigh will say King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

[Jefferson Bethke] Source: LYBIO.net
There was no footnote that says dry erase marker or with pencil. So I mean, maybe Jesus even had a tattoo, I mean how well says it right. What else could have be if it’s stamped on his thigh, now some of you watching would probably say, hey that’s a stretch and I say yes and I mean that’s a stretch, but it is just as much as stretch if not even less, so then the stretch you try to make in Leviticus and first Corinthians.

So I just say, hey can we just turn this issue to the heart. Can we understand in context what those verses mean? And can we say that it’s all about giving Glory to God whether that’s in art, whether that’s in tattoos, whether that’s in piano, music, politics. It’s all about using whatever we have to point to him. And if that’s happening, could we just live in community, can we just have love and grace, and forgiveness with one another and just represent him faithfully.

Jefferson Bethke – Are Tattoos Sinful. It’s all about giving Glory to God whether that’s in art, whether that’s in tattoos, whether that’s in piano, music, politics. It’s all about using whatever we have to point to him. Complete Full Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text.